Canada/The merger between Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier and Amos will soon become official

The merger of the Municipality of Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier with the Town of Amos should become official on January 1, 2025, according to the mayors of both municipalities.

Amos and Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier have completed all the steps required to merge. Amos mayor Sébastien d'Astous confirms that the resolutions have been adopted and the by-law authorized by the Ministère des Affaires municipales.

The two municipalities recently published a public notice leading to the merger. The public still has 30 days to express its opinion on the matter, but the mayors of Amos and Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier are confident that the merger will go ahead.

I have little doubt that it will happen. We already have several service agreements with Amos and things are going very well, so we're satisfied," says Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier mayor Félix Labrecque.

A single budget presented in January

According to the mayor of Amos, the town will wait until early next year to present a budget that reflects its new reality.

Everything is in order to have it ready for January 1. For both municipalities, we won't be doing a budget [in December], we'll be doing provisional budgets that we won't be presenting to the public, and at the beginning of January we'll be doing a merged budget," explains Sébastien d'Astous.

Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier had approached Amos about a possible merger, mainly because of a lack of personnel within the municipality, which will retain a seat on the Amos municipal council for at least the next five years.

Until the next election, it will be me and one of my councillors who will sit on the Amos council, and then for the next 4-year term, there will be a seat reserved for a Saint-Félix resident," assures Félix Labrecque.

The mayor of Amos says he is open to other mergers in the coming years.

When we did the study, I reached out to all the mayors, saying that if you wanted to do a study, we could do one with several municipalities, but I'm not pro-merger. I think some times are better than others, and Saint-Félix was the right time," he maintains.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/